Florida Man Says Samsung Note 7 Set Family Jeep Ablaze

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A man in St Petersburg, Florida, says that while charging his Samsung Note 7 inside his truck, the smartphone combusted and sparked a massive blaze that totaled his Jeep Grand Cherokee.

A Florida man says his Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone exploded inside his car and ignited a fire that destroyed the vehicle.

Nathan Dornacher said he and his wife, Lydia Dornacher, returned to their St. Petersburg home from a garage sale to drop off a desk he purchased on Labor Day.

While unloading his car, Nathan Dornacher said he left the Jeep on and the air conditioning running since he planned on heading out again to a local pet supply store, according to his Facebook post. Dornacher noted that he had left his cell phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, charging in the Jeep because "me and Lydia always fight over the house charger."

When he returned to his car, Dornacher said he saw the dashboard on fire and opened the door to find the interior was "engulfed" in flames.

Photo credit: Nathan Dornacher

"Not the barbecue I wanted on my day off," Dornacher wrote.

Firefighters responded to put out the blaze, but the Jeep's interior had been completely destroyed and the car was totaled.

"His general impression was that the fire was on the interior of the dashboard somewhere,” said St. Petersburg Deputy Fire Marshal Steve Lawrence.

Lawrence says they have to be certain it wasn’t something else before concluding the smartphone is to blame.

The incident came just days after the tech giant announced that it was recalling and suspending sales of its Galaxy Note7 smartphone after reports of the device catching fire while charging.

U.S. aviation safety officials Thursday warned airline passengers not to turn on or charge the Samsung smartphone during flights and not to put the Galaxy Note 7 phones in their checked bags, citing "recent incidents and concerns raised by Samsung" about the devices.

On Thursday, the Dornacher family posted an update on Facebook saying they don't plan to sue Samsung, but that the company is sending a representative to their home to check out their case. He says his phone was only five days old.

"All I want out of this is for everyone to take this recall seriously and if you didn't know about it please educate yourself before it's too late I had the phone for 5 days and not having TV or a notification we did not know," he said. "We are safe no one was hurt all that matters to me."